iFACTS | Pehr Löfling

Date of Birth	20 January 1729.
Place of Birth	Tolvfors, Valbo, Gästrikland, Sweden.
Date of Death	22 February 1756.
Place of Death	San Antonio de Caroni, Guayana, Venezuela.
Monuments Medals Etc.	Burial ground, Las ruinas de Las Misiones del Caroni, Ciudad Guayana, Bolivar, Venezuela. Stamp (year 1980) to the 250-years’ memory of Pehr Löfling’s birth, “ 250 anos del nacimiento de Pedro Loefling”. Venezuela.
Variations of Name's Spelling	Pedro Loefling (in documents from Spain and Venezuela). Petri Loefling (in his own travel journal Iter Hispanicum eller Resa til Spanska Länderna uti Europa och America).
Preserved signature	In correspondence.
Portrait	Unknown.
Childhood, Adolescence & Education	Father, mill works’ bookkeeper Erik Löfling. Mother, Barbro Strandman. He was educated by private tutor at home. Student, Uppsala University, signed in 11 February 1743. Löfling started with theology, but concentrated later on medicine and natural history. Bachelor of Philosophy and he defended a thesis for Linnaeus, 18 November 1749. Unusually, the thesis “de Gemmae arborum” was authored mainly by the respondent, i.e. Löfling, not by Linnaeus. Doctor of Medicine 1751.
Professional Life	Löfling worked at times as tutor for Carl Linnaeus’ son Carl, for food and lodging. The young student also helped out in Uppsala Botanical Garden together with completion of fair copies and registers for Linnaeus’ publications including the dictated text for Philosophia botanica (1751). Fellow of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 27 April 1751. Spanish Royal botanicus with Professor’s name 1753. Head of the natural history work during the Spanish Great Border Drawing Expedition to South America, during the management of José de Iturriaga, January 1754 until Löfling’s death in February 1756. Fellow of Royal Society of Sciences, Uppsala.
Journeys & Voyages	16 May 1751, he travelled with an East India Company ship from Gothenburg to Oporto in Portugal. The journey continued by land towards Madrid, arrival 9 October 1751. (The Swedish East India Company paid for his journey to Spain and the Spanish Embassy for Löfling’s stay in Madrid). Löfling stayed approximately for two years in the regions, in and around Madrid, where he managed to collect and arrange a large number of plants into a herbarium. During periods he was also more or less idle, waiting for the South American journey to take place. He left Madrid 20 October 1753 and arrived in Cadiz 5 November. (Löfling was employed as responsible for the natural history work during both the journey and stay in South America). The ship sailed from Cadiz 28 January 1754 and arrived to Cumana in Venezuela early April the same year. This was the expeditions’ base camp during the following half year. Early in 1755 Löfling travelled by land towards the mission station in Guayana, to be able to collect as many plants as possible, he arrived 29 April. The majority of the expedition members travelled instead by sea, which was seen as safer. The year 1755 was a difficult for Löfling, he suffered repeated attacks of fever which caused his death in February the following year.
Travel Diaries & Other Publications in Connection with the Journeys & Voyages	Iter hispanicum eller Resa til Spanska Länderna uti Europa och America, förrättad ifrån år 1751 til år 1756. Published posthumously by Carl Linnaeus 1758. Anteckningar och anmärkningar under resa från Madrid till Cadiz den 20 October 1753 af Pehr Löfling. Published in Svenska Linnésällskapets Årsskrift, 1925.
Civil Status & Family	Unmarried.
Preserved Collections & Manuscripts	Letter book, passport, written documents by Löfling’s hands to a total of 1.700 manuscript pages, 200 drawings, water-colours and two maps. Archive, Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid (Real Jardin Botánico). Herbarium plants; Linnaean Herbarium, London, Bergius Herbarium and Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm. Letters from Pehr Löfling to his parents, Carl Linnaeus etc., in several Swedish archives; Lund’s University Library, Karolinska Institute, National Archives, Uppsala University Library and The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. “9 pen and ink drawings of plants..., Descriptiones Epistolares..., Förteckning på de örter, som sändas ifrån Madrid..., diagnosis of a bird from Madrid..., vermis reptilis quidam...”, manuscripts by Löfling and 250 specimens of herbarium plants; The Linnean Society of London. Fish specimens from Spain, The Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. Letters, The Linnean Society of London, Linnaean Correspondence (32 letters 1752-1754, and 18 letters from Linnaeus to Löfling 1751-1754).
Extra Notes	Löfling was at times living in the Linnaeus household, and by his master named as “most dear and best pupil”. A Spanish herb has been named by Linnaeus after Löfling, Loeflingia hispanica. (family Caryophyllaceae). Löfling’s South American collections are lost.
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